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Iceland

Never thought I would end up in Iceland nor be taking a few agricultural snaps but 2 weeks ago it was time to fly to Reykjavik and meet up with my 15 european
co-winners of Continental Tyres 2017 draw whose prize was a 6 day Icelandic Land Rover driving Experience.

After staying overnight at our first hotel on the edge of the harbour the following morning we set off in six 3 month old German registered Discoveries in convoy with lead and tail defender 110's all in radio contact. For the next 4 days we would drive most of the time on tracks across the Icelandic highlands and National Parks stopping each night in a new hotel. As we drove our guide gave us inside info about Iceland and the scenery we were driving through, lunch would be a quick sandwich with driving shared between us from 9am to 7-8pm.

It was a great unexpected experience (I bought some Continental tyres online from Mytyres, part of Delticom, part of Conti for a van at work and ticked the box when offered the free draw!) and here are some of the photos, most taken on the fly, some with difficulty seeing as our Discovery had a fair crack in the windscreen!

Re: Iceland

I find it surprising how farming seems to co-exist so close to volcanic features and in some places glaciers descending almost to the Sea.
The farming kit and practices seem similar to more northern areas here too.

Reminded me of this paramotor video was I watching a couple of days ago.
They were there about the time of the eclipse, some of his other recent videos from the trip are also good.

Re: Iceland

I presume you stood across the continental divide, with one foot on each continent.

JV

They do have some new forests, one right near Geysir where after a quick look at that we then drove through a narrow stone track in the relatively recent "forest" created by block planting.

As for dogs there are a few about but out in the sticks it would be the icelandic sheep dog mainly, quite a lot smaller than what we see here but one afternoon we were a long long way out in a lava field following the tracks alongside the plyons when we came across a frantic dog in distress that came up to each car sniffing to see if we were its owners, Marcus the LR man in the back defender stopped and spent some time trying to coax it into his truck (once bundled in the passenger seat he went round the truck to see the dog nose out of the drivers unlatched door and escape!) eventually captured and ringing the number on its collar the owners were in a car a little way back changing a punctured tyre. Marcus stopped because it was obvious the dog if left rescued was literally miles from the nearest water- it wouldn't of stood much chance panting as it was.

We drove across the divide, mike the guide said how far apart they were but I remember the bit about them moving 2cm a year and the next volcano thought likely to erupt could do so in the next 4-5 years possibly as the geologists are measuring the amount the crater core is rising yearly.

Re: Iceland

Originally Posted by 4wd

I find it surprising how farming seems to co-exist so close to volcanic features and in some places glaciers descending almost to the Sea.
The farming kit and practices seem similar to more northern areas here too.

Reminded me of this paramotor video was I watching a couple of days ago.
They were there about the time of the eclipse, some of his other recent videos from the trip are also good.

He's brave going up there! We went to the only one you can drive up to, once up there its very apparent how cold the wind is over the ice & snow. get a few miles away and its comfortable again. All the glaciers except for the most northern one are in decline according to the guide

Theres a lot of old tractors and also many new Valtras which seem to be the weapon of choice on the lowlands

Re: Iceland

I guess he was doing a bit of "summer maintenance" It was just parked up there waiting for the next lot of gullible tourists. Iceland promote their tourist industry as its one of the countries big earners, Icelandair do some good fares and will allow punters to stopover for up to 6 days at no extra cost. I chatted to a guy at Heathrow, a brit who lives in San Francisco and was returning home after a 6 month visit sorting an elderly parent and a funeral. He'd come via United airlines and when sorting out a oneway return (his initial return had expired) they wanted £1800 cattle class, google had come up with an Iceland air short stopover London-Iceland and then on to San-Fran for £480. He was chuffed and also going to look into using the route in future trips possibly.

You can take a tour from the capital and drive to the glacier where they will take you up onto it and then you can go inside it! At least that looks cleaner than it actually is when you walk off the lava onto the ice!

Inga, the lady from Continental who organised it looks to of got all the place names that we visited from the guide, didn't get much time to note that down and we abandoned the provisional itinerary to work around the changing weather.